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Introduction

What do you prefer – the sounds of birdsong and wind rustling in the trees, or the hum of traffic and chatter of people passing by? Some people like the quiet of the countryside and others love the noise of the city, but did you know that constant exposure to loud noise has been found to increase anxiety? That's why some people have been trying to find ways to make our cities feel quieter. Neil and Georgie discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.

This week's question

Sound is measured in units called decibels, but how many decibels is the sound of a voice whispering?

a) 3 decibels
b) 13 decibels
c) 30 decibels

Listen to the programme to hear the answer.

Vocabulary

decibel
unit for measuring sound
 
dress loud
wear clothes with bright colours, large patterns and bold designs 
 
handle (a problem)
deal with something difficult
 
art installation
artwork designed to create an interactive experience in a specific space
 
squeaky
making a high-pitched sound
 
counterintuitive
happening differently from what you would expect

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript. 

Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
 
Georgie
And I'm Georgie. Neil, I'm going to play you two sound recordings, and I want you to tell me how you feel when you hear them.
 
Neil
OK.
 
Georgie
First this… And now this.
 
Neil
Oh, well, that first clip made me feel really relaxed. But the second one – oh, it's horrible! I felt quite stressed out actually.
 
Georgie
Oh no! Well, this little experiment shows how much we are affected by the noise around us. And that's a problem if you're one of the four billion people around the world who live in cities.
 
Neil
Yes, whether it's the rattle of train tracks, honking car horns, or the roar of aeroplanes overhead, modern cities are full of noise and this can have serious effects. The World Health Organisation reports that by 2050, around 2.5 billion people will experience hearing loss, and exposure to loud noise has been linked to stress and anxiety.
 
Georgie
In this episode, we'll be hearing about ways to make our cities quieter, more relaxing places, using some useful new words and phrases. And remember, you'll find all the vocabulary along with a quiz and worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil
But now I have a question for you, Georgie. Sound is measured in units called decibels. But how many decibels would it be if I whispered? A whisper is speaking like this. Is it:
 
a)    3 decibels,
b)    13 decibels, or
c)    30 decibels?
 
Georgie
Oh, that's really hard. I'll go for b) 13 decibels.
 
Neil
Well, we'll find out the answer at the end of the programme. Let's start in one of the noisiest cities in the world – Mumbai in India, where daytime noise levels regularly hit 80 decibels, which is over 20 decibels higher than World Health Organisation recommendations. Listen to Mumbai native Chhavi Sachdev share her experiences of living in this noisy city with BBC World Service programme People Fixing the World.
 
Chhavi Sachdev
I mean, India in general is just really loud. We are a loud people. We dress loud, we talk loud, we celebrate loud, we watch movies loud. When people ask me what I miss about living abroad, I tell them it's the quiet, because after 12 years of living in the US and Europe, when I got back, I realised I couldn't handle it anymore. I'd gotten used to lower levels of noise.
 
Georgie
Chhavi says, "Indians talk loud, celebrate loud and dress loud." To dress loud means to wear clothes with bright colours and large, bold patterns.
 
Neil
When Chhavi returned to India after living overseas, she says she couldn't handle the noise. If you can't handle something, you find it difficult to deal or cope with.
 
Georgie
So, what can be done to tackle noise in cities like Mumbai? One interesting approach involves using sound itself to make things feel quieter. Soundscaping is the idea of adding certain sounds to busy public spaces so that they sound and feel more relaxing.
 
Neil
Sound artist Charles Montambault lives near the Parc des Madelinots, a busy city park in Montreal, Canada. Charles was inspired to recreate the ocean sounds he heard on holiday in the Magdalen Islands in his city park back home. On BBC World Service programme People Fixing the World, he tells reporter Natasha Fernandes that these sounds included ocean waves and some unusual-sounding sand.
 
Charles Montambault
The sand on the Magdalen Islands can sing. When you walk into the sand firmly, the sand makes some squeaky sounds, so that's one sound that is kind of funny, kind of special.
 
Natasha Fernandes
Inside the small park, surrounded by busy roads, Charles and his team set up an immersive sound art installation in the form of speakers planted in flower beds.
 
Charles Montambault
So, the art installation was really to make this park a little quieter by adding some quiet noises. So, it's counterintuitive, but you can make a park less noisy by adding some calmer sounds.
 
Georgie
The sand on the Magdalen Islands is squeaky – it makes a high-pitched sound called a squeak when stepped on. Charles played recordings of this sand, ocean waves and other relaxing sounds through speakers hidden in the park. He created an art installation – a work of art designed to give people an interactive experience.
 
Neil
By adding more relaxing sounds, Charles' art installation actually made the park feel quieter. It's an example of something that's counterintuitive, meaning it happens differently from how you would expect.
 
Georgie
What a great idea! And similar soundscapes are now helping city dwellers relax in other cities too, including Tokyo and Barcelona. Now Neil, you asked me a question about a very quiet sound – a whisper. So, are you going to reveal the correct answer?

Neil
I asked you how loud a whisper is.
 
Georgie
Yes, and I said 13 decibels.
 
Neil
Well, 13 is an unlucky number and you are wrong.
 
Georgie
Ah!
 
Neil
It was actually 30. OK. Let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with decibel – the unit for measuring sound.
 
Georgie
Someone who dresses loud likes to wear clothes with bright colours and bold designs.
 
Neil
If you can't handle something, you find it difficult to deal with.
 
Georgie
An art installation is an artwork designed to create an interactive experience in a certain space.
 
Neil
The adjective squeaky describes things which make a high-pitched sound like a mouse.
 
Georgie
Squeak, squeak! And finally, if you call something counterintuitive, you mean it happens differently from how you would expect. Once again, our six minutes are up, but if you'd like to hear more about this and many other trending topics, you'll find more episodes and learning activities on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. See you again soon. But for now, it's goodbye.
 
Neil
Goodbye...!

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